The theft was inadvertent; his Keystone State driver was told to pick up the keys to the vehicle in which he was to shepherd the governor at the Holiday Inn in Allentown, Pa.

“He did exactly what he was told, except it was the wrong Holiday Inn and the wrong van,” said Pawlenty, who campaigned through Pennsylvania for presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain on Saturday and Sunday.

The van the driver picked up was a tricked-out touring vehicle, complete with an LCD video screen, an Xbox and video games and an iPod-ready, six-speaker stereo system.

According to Bandago van rental company owner Sharky Laguana, the band Everclear, on its way to Denver for the Democratic National Convention, had dropped off the van at the Allentown Holiday Inn about 6 a.m. Sunday and left the keys at the front desk for a Bandago employee to pick up about 9 a.m.

But about 8 a.m., Pawlenty’s driver arrived at the Holiday Inn to pick up the keys. Because there was only one set of keys at the hotel’s front desk, the driver and the hotel clerk assumed they were to the vehicle intended for Pawlenty’s travels.

So, when the Bandago employee went to retrieve the vehicle, “sheer panic and terror” ensued, Laguana said.

Laguana called police and reported the van stolen and talked to Everclear’s business manager and tour manager about their responsibility. Technically, Laguana said, since the rental company never retrieved the van after the band used it, the band was liable.

Meanwhile, Laguana was trying to figure out what happened.

“That is the most amazing criminal heist that anyone has ever done,” he said he was thinking. “The conclusion I came to was it’s an inside job.”

Pawlenty said that he was also thinking something was a bit off. After being picked up at the Holiday Inn where he was staying, the governor questioned the driver.

“He said, ‘I don’t know, they just asked me to pick up this van.’ And the strange thing is we were driving out of the parking lot of the correct Holiday Inn and the car we were supposed to be in and had used the previous day (with a different driver) was in the parking lot, and so I said, ‘Why aren’t we taking that car because it’s sitting right there.’ And he said, ‘I don’t know,’ ” Pawlenty said Wednesday.

The driver thought it odd that there were beer cans in the van when he picked it up.

On Monday morning, after the governor was off to campaign in Ohio, the driver called a phone number on a rental contract he found in the van. Laguana got a text message from an employee saying the van had been returned, and the van was retrieved by 1 p.m.

Bandago has been fully reimbursed for the use of the van.

“The McCain campaign has been excellent to deal with,” Laguana said.

And Laguana and the governor have a story to tell.

“I’ve had a lot of crazy things happen in our vans. I don’t know that this is even the craziest thing that’s happened in our vans. … This is the funnest thing,” Laguana said.

Laguana, meanwhile, has extended Pawlenty an invitation: “We’d certainly be happy to have him again, albeit as a client that made a reservation,” and a request: He’d love a signed note or photo of Pawlenty inscribed with something like, “Great van! Thanks.”

Rachel E. Stassen-Berger has been toiling as a Minnesota Capitol reporter for one Twin Cities newspaper or another since 2001. She has covered two government shutdowns, two statewide recounts, two Minnesota presidential candidates and lots of policy, politics and plots in between. She tends toward the geeky, has been known to gush about the beauty of certain spreadsheets and is pretty easy to get along with.

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